Backward linearised tree pattern matching

Abstract

We present a new backward tree pattern matching algorithm for ordered trees. The algorithm finds all occurrences of a single given tree pattern which match an input tree. It makes use of linearisations of both the given pattern and the input tree. The algorithm preserves the properties and advantages of standard backward string pattern matching approaches. The number of symbol comparisons in the backward tree pattern matching can be sublinear in the size of the input tree. As in the case of backward string pattern matching, the size of the bad character shift table used by the algorithm is linear in the size of the alphabet. We compare the new algorithm with best performing previously existing algorithms based on (non-linearised) tree pattern matching using finite tree automata or stringpath matchers and show that it outperforms these for single pattern matching.